Combined piano bench and sheet-music rack



March 16 1926.

S. E. A HLSTEDT COMBINED PIANO BENCH AND SHEET MUSIC RACK Filed Oct. 30.1924 Patented Mar. 16, 1926.

Fl cE,

rarsNr SVEN E. AHLSTEDT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

COMBINED PIANO BENCH AND SHEET-MUSIC RACK.

Application filed October 30, 1924. Serial No. 746,757.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SVEN E. AHLsTED'r, a subject of the King of Sweden,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in a Combined Piano Benchand Sheet-Music Rack, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates, generally,'to furniture, but has particularrelation to piano benches and sheet music holders or racks embodiedtherein, and it consists in certain peculiarities of the construction,novel arrangement and combination of the various parts thereof as willbe hereinafter more fully set forth and specifically claimed.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a combined pianobench and means for holding sheets or leaves of music in such a way thatthey will be protected from dust, when stored, and yet so that they maybe readily reached and the selection of any one of the sheetsconveniently made when desired for use. Another object of the inventionis, to furnish a piano bench and sheet music holder or rack of the abovementioned general character, which shall be simple and inexpensiveinconstruction, attractive in appearance, strong and durable, with itsparts so made, arranged and co-operating with one another,-that thesheets of music held by the holders or racks therefor may be readilyreached for selection and use, by raising a leaf or portion of thebench, to about a vertical position, in which operation, as well as inthe act of lowering said leafor portion for'storing the sheets within adust-proof container, also forming a part of the bench, they will beprevented accidental displacement, by reason of the spring-actuatedsupporting plates or members of the rack or holder, and also by reasonof guard members carried by the leaves of the bench.

, Other objects and advantages of the invention will become obvious fromthe following description and explanation, which will be more readilyunderstood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, inwhich an embodiment of the invention is illustrated, it being understoodthat changes and modifications may be resorted to without a departurefrom the spirit of the invention so long as they come within the scopeof the appended claim forming a part hereof. I

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of a piano bench andsheet music rack embodying the invention illustrating by dotted linesthe position in which one of the leaves or seat sections of the benchmay be placed when'it'is desired toplace sheets of music between thesupporting plates or members of its rack or to remove" them therefrom. I

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view'taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1 looking inthe direction indicated by the arrows.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmental vertical sectional view of one end ofthe container of the bench and a part ofone of the leaves or seatsections thereof showing a sheet music rack carried by said leaf or seatsection and in its normal position, and

Fig. 4 is a fragmental bottom plan view taken on line 4:& of Fig. 3-showing the manner of hinging or pivoting the sheetsupporting members ofthe device.

The reference numeral 5 designates as a whole the container for thesheet music and their racks or holders, which is by preferences'utficient dimensions to cover onehalf of the top of'the container 5and are so arranged that their meeting edges will rest on the upper edgeof a transversely and vertically disposed partition 9 positioned midwaybetweenthe ends of the container as is clearly shown in Fig. 7 1 of thedrawings' The leaves or seat sections 8 will also rest closely on theupper side and end edges of the container 5 when in their closedpositions and will thus render said container dust-proof. By preference,the leaves or seat sections 8 when intheir closed positions as shown inFig. 1 extend at their edges a slight distance beyond the perimeter ofthe container 5 thus affording means by which they can be grasped whenit is desired to raise and turn them on their hinges.

Each of the leaves or seat sections 8 is provided near its hingedportion but within the container 5, with a transversely disposed anddepending plate or partition 10, each of which may be secured to thelower surface of its section 8 by means of angle brackets 11 orotherwise. Near each of its side edges each of the leaves or seatsections 8 is provided on its lower surface with depending guards orplates 12 which extend at their free ends to points near the partition 9and at their lower edges to points near the floor of the container as isclearly shown in Fig. l. of the drawings. The guards of each leali 8 arelocated in pa allelism with one another as shown in Fig. '2 and areemployed for the purpose of preventing lateral displacement of thesheets oi music.

Pivotally mounted in horizontal positions and in spaced relation to eachother on the inner surface of each of the depending plates 10 are aplurality of sheet sup iiorting members 13 which are by preference ofsuch width as to extend from points near one of the guard plates 12 topoints near the other of said guard plates as is clearly shown in Fig. 2of the drawing. The pivots i l for these sheet supporting members 13 aremounted in brackets 15 carried by each oi the plates 10 on its surfaceadjacent the guard plates 12 and are located at the side edges of thesupporting members 13 as will be readily understood by reference toFigs. 2 to a inclusive of the drawing.

Each of the pivots 1 ft has coiled therearound a spring 16, see Fig. i,one end of each of which rests against the plate 10 on which its bracketis mounted, and the other end against a surface of the member 13 so asto hold the latter upon spring tension, said tension being exerted oneach supporting member 13 towards the seat section 8 on which it ismounted. By this arrangement it is manifest that the music sheetsupporting members 13 will be normally held in substantial parallelismwith one another and with the seat sect-ion 8 by which they are carried,thus retaining the sheets of music interposed between said supportinginembers yet permitting, when desired, deflection or tilting of thesupporting members as well as the sheets of music resting thereon orthere-between downwardly towards the partition 9 after the learl' orseat section 8 has been raised to about the position shown by dottedlines in Fig. 1 of the drawing, to enable selection of any sheet to bemade. Thus it will be understood that the space between any pair of themembers 13, or that between the leaf 8 and the adjacent member 13, canbe enlarged to pcrn'iit of free access to and the handling andinspection of the music sheets for selective purposes. After suchselection has been made and pressure has been removed trom thesupporting n1emher or members, it is ap nirent that they will berestored to their normal pa 'allel positions. As the guard plates 12 arelocated at the sides ot the SHPPOltlDQ members 13, it is obvious thatthe sheets of music will be prevented lateral displacement and that whenthe seat sections 8 are lowered to their normal positions as shown inFig. l, additional protection against dust will be pro- Titled.

l-l aving thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new anddesire to secure by letters Patent is BL device of the hind described,ctmsisting of a bench embodying su iporting legs, an elongated hozclihecontainer supported thereliiy, a leaf section hinged to the upperportion of each end at said container and adapted normally to lie onthetop thereof and to close the same. a transversely disposed memberdepending from each of said leaves near its hinged end, a plurality ofspaced slicet-siu )poi'ting spring-actuated members pivotally secured toeach oi said depending members and normally extended therefrom at rightangles thereto, and guard members mounted one on each side of each ofsaid leaves of said sheet-supperting members and depending from saidleaves, said guards and said depending members being arranged withrespect to said leaves so as to be located within the container when theleaves are in their normal positions.

SVEN AHLSTEDT.

